Tuesday, 20 July 2010

A gig sabbatical of over 2 months, over a boring so-called "Millennium Period" is finally broken, at one of my favourite venues and with the welcome return of one of the best live acts of the 1990s! Ady knocked off work early, so we and Rachel drove over, arriving at the Garage at 8 and having to queue up despite having tickets (bah!). Sorted ourselves out in time to catch the first band, an un-named mishmash of styles which showed occasional promise in a noisy Seafood-like way, with the talented drummer/ occasional guitarist propping them up considerably.

Main support The Spaceheads were a less promising proposition however; a 2 man band of percussion and keyboard/trumpeter (!), who played horrendously grating freeform jazz which lasted forever, so it seemed!

The Chunk, however, were a breath of fresh air, ambling onstage at 10 and really kick-starting this gig malarkey for the year 2000. It's been over 5 years since I last saw this awesome live beast, during which time they've mellowed out considerably, at least on their CD releases. However, they still kicked up a raucous and dynamic pre-grunge US rock fuss tonight, with Mac and Laura in particular very energetic performers. An early "Disconnected", from the new CD, became a ridiculously jolly early highlight as the moshpit expanded to encompass ourselves. The infectious "Watery Hands" was introduced by Jim as the song he wrote, when he believed he could date actress Jeanane Garofalo (!). Another great highlight was the way Mac dealt with a stagediving punter who disconnected his pedals in the process (Mac: "someone's spoiled the song and his face. I don't know which is the more disappointing", Punter: "but this is the City of London", Mac: "Yes, but this is the stage of Superchunk, so get the fuck off!")

A forceful, frenetic and frantic set climaxed with the inevitable but nevertheless wonderfully strident "Slack Motherfucker", during which I kicked into the mêlée and really gave it loads. Some serious white noise in the encore capped a tremendous, cobweb-evicting set from these past - and still present! - masters. Got to quickly chat with Jim afterwards, and also ran into Kev from Seafood to enthuse about their new record!